6/30/2003

SUPREME COURT: I obviously don’t have time to respond to all the Supreme Court decisions in one morning. I haven’t read the decisions in question and therefore have little basis on which to discuss them (though that doesn’t stop 99.99999% of the country). Warning: if you base your opinion on news coverage you are making a mistake.

I will eagerly read Justice O’Connor’s decision to see where she found the Constitutional provision that racial preferences are okay until the year 2028, when they might not be.

CHUCKIE S. GETS A PASS: New York Republicans are throwing in the towel in the 2004 Senate race against Chuck Schumer, one of the most noxious politicians out there. Why? They figure it might help Bush by keeping Democrats from getting riled up. Good strategy, boys!

I’M BACK: What a week to be gone: the week the Supreme Court issues its blockbuster decisions. I was relieved to see, however, that we need no longer worry about the Supreme Court if Dick Gephardt becomes President. We have his word that he will, and I quote, “do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does.” See here for details.

I breathlessly await my liberal readers’ fierce denunciation of this ridiculous statement, just as they would do if Bush had said it.

6/19/2003

IMPEACH BOYCE MARTIN: Who? Read this opinion piece and find out. Or, if you’re too damn lazy to click on the link (likely), I’ll just tell you: he’s the judge who fixed the Michigan affirmative action case. As the piece demonstrates, he manipulated the system in many different ways to get a result favoring affirmative action. For example, he circumvented the random appointment process to get himself put on the case (something that observers often suspect Stephen Reinhardt of doing). Also, he waited five months to notify the rest of the court of a petition for en banc rehearing — just long enough for two conservative judges to take senior status and make themselves ineligible to sit on the rehearing panel, which made all the difference.

“Martin insists that he has been falsely accused. ‘I’m royally shafted,’ he told The Associated Press. ‘It’s like poor Sammy Sosa. I never had a corked bat before, and I don’t think I had one here.'”

Uh, Sammy Sosa definitely had a corked bat, dude. I think it’s definitely like Sammy Sosa. And I think your bat just broke.

SUPREME COURT SECRECY: It always seems like there are a million leaks from places like the White House and the Pentagon. Maybe these folks should take a cue from the Supreme Court. OK, sure, books like The Brethren have featured insider looks at the Court. But consider this: there are still ten decisions yet to be announced at the Court, including the Michigan affirmative action case and the homosexual sodomy case. But these cases have long since been decided — and even if you don’t count the Justices themselves, there are dozens of people who know not only the outcomes, but who voted which way. Yet this sort of thing never seems to be leaked. Not even the Bush v. Gore decision was leaked ahead of time. Given the significance of these cases, I think that’s pretty amazing.

BLOGGING HIATUS: Prepare yourself for a long blogging hiatus — perhaps a week or more. The reason must remain a mystery. (Wait — I already said it earlier: I am going on vacation.) Anyway, I am not so dedicated that I will be doing remote blogging from a mountain cabin. I leave that to the InstaPundits of the world. Those of us who have maybe two regular readers just gotta relax sometimes.

My advice to those who can’t do without their Patterico fix: explore my extensive archives — especially if you haven’t been a regular reader from the beginning. You should find the occasional take on something you won’t see anywhere else, and plenty to infuriate people on both sides of the political spectrum (though, to be sure, more to infuriate the left). Enjoy, and I’ll see you at the end of the month.

Interesting story in our local Dog Trainer this morning. Somewhere in Michigan, a white cop chased a black kid who was on a motorcycle. The kid crashed the motorcycle and died. That was sufficient for two days of rioting. Five buildings have been burned to the ground, including “one home belonging to a single father of five.” Police cars have been torched. Rocks and bricks were thrown at firefighters. A dozen people were stabbed or beaten. Another dozen were arrested. “Police and rioters exchanged gunfire, with one passerby wounded in the shoulder by a shot from the crowd.”

Lacking in the Dog Trainer story is any context. The story says the police chief will review the department’s pursuit policy, but the story never says why police were chasing the kid. The story implies that it was an expired license or registration issue, quoting a City Commissioner as saying: “We don’t believe that a person who doesn’t have a driver’s license, or tags not up to date, should die for that.”

“The deputy briefly pursued the pair but stopped because of the motorcycles’ high speed. A short time later, Benton Township Patrolman Wes Koza witnessed one of the motorcyclists speeding and running stop signs, police said.

“Koza pursued the motorcycle into Benton Harbor, where it drove through yards, came back onto the street and ran more stop signs. The officer was several blocks back when Shurn’s motorcycle hit the building.

“Shurn’s speed in the residential neighborhood approached 70 mph at times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”

According to this AP wire story: “Police said they did not know why Shurn fled from the officers, although his operator’s license had been suspended and officers found a small amount of marijuana on him, state police Lt. Joseph Zangaro said.”

This CNN story says: “Shurn’s uncle, Ralph Crenshaw, said the officers knew who they were chasing and could have picked up his nephew later without risking lives in a high-speed chase.”

BUSH SAYS NO: Bush has rejected the presumptuous request by Democratic Senators to have a hand in selecting the next Supreme Court nominee. Good for him. Under the Constitution, this is his job, not theirs. Plus, I don’t want those guys helping select the next Justice.

So they might filibuster. Let ’em. Let’s see what the public thinks about this obstructionism when it is finally in their face.

I HAVE HATCHED A PLAN: Orrin Hatch recently said that he favors investigating the idea of remotely damaging the computers of illegal music downloaders. He said this “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights.”

I wonder how many hackers are working right now on a virus to destroy Sen. Hatch’s computer. It may be the only way you can teach him about due process.

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